The author of this article,Helen Nianias, is a freelance journalist who reports on women's issues, migration and the refugee crisis. That should actually be enough - although some would say I am prejudiced. So let's go...

Maths flourished in Persia among Zoroastrians and Jews in al-Andalus. Maths was never a paradigm in Islamic science. Evidence for al-Khwārizmī''s conversion to Islam is not very strong. The pious preface to al-Khwārizmī's book Algebra indicated that he was an orthodox Muslim, added in a later stage to claim this book for Islamic heritage. According to Al-Tabari he was a Zoroastrian.

The father of Algebra is Diophantus of Alexandria. Al-Khwarizmi’s works were less ambitious than Diophantus’ in that they dealt with equations in x and x2. Diophantus frequently dealt with cubic and higher power equations, up to x9. Also, neither of them used the symbolic algebra Diophantus had pioneered. Brahmagupta and al-Khwarizmi’s crucial contribution is the concept of the general solution of an equation. General solutions are not offered in any of the surviving books of Arithmetica.

So Al-Khwarizmi's contributions to mathematics, geography, astronomy, and cartography established the basis for innovation in algebra and trigonometry. So he innovated something that already existed, the work of Diophantus. Actually Al-Khwarizmi can be considered as the "father of Annotation" that, after it fused with the Diophantuses symbolic algebra, became the source for modern algebra.

So what can be said is that al-Khwārizmī, together with for instance Omar Khayyam, was part of a Persian School. His work was not really known in Arab territories but arrived in Europe and Andalusia through Armenia and the Byzantine Empire through Jewish trade networks. Jewish and Christian scholars translated many classical works in an attempt to enlighten their new Arab rulers. First their hard work paid off - their works were added to the "House of Wisdom" in Baghdad.

But just after 1000 AD or so Al-Ghazali refuted philosophy as lacking a foundation in Islam; the philosophers, he insisted, would be wrong as long as they undermined God’s authority and denied basic Islamic beliefs with their questions and concepts. Al-Ghazali believed that nothing could be known apart from God and Islam. Furthermore, it was futile—and wrong—to believe otherwise.

So when Islam had shaped it self life became dangerous and countless scientists were persecuted and saw their works destroyed. But most of the work of these brilliant minds wasn't lost - it was translated and became part of western culture.

So all in all this article just shows what propaganda does with the human mind. Not that long ago the title would probably have been something like "How Maths survived Islam".

Propaganda is to some scholars as a carrot on a stick to donkeys. Karen Armstrong being the prime example on how it can induce a desired behavior.

The main argument is Islam - as a religion and its place in the development of scientific discoveries (such a mathematics). Being an empire which ruled over Jews & Christians, anything published by either a Jew (like you mentioned Omar Khayam), Muslims quickly gave it an Islamic face - "Muslims invented it".

This is one of the hottest topics between Muslim scholars and non-Muslims ones. How much credence should western societies (rather Judea-Christianity) give to Islam for our most notable scientific discoveries and the development of Mathematics.?

One glaring evidence has to do with the fact that letters used in modern calculus are greek alpha-bet & Algebra is that of Latin.

Schmuck..Nobody says Al-Khwarizmi is a mathematician founder. He perfected the mathematical shortcomings of the infidels.

He explicitly explains the use of zero, a numerical system developed by the Arabs. At the same time, he developed a decimal system and thus, the whole number system, algorithm or algorizm acquired the name after being developed by the Arabs. In his quest to introduce Indian numerical system (now known as Arabic numerals), he has developed a number of procedural calculations including operations and fractions. The numerical system was first introduced by the Arabs to the West whose work has been translated into European. The contribution of Khawarizmi in geography is also outstanding. He not only examined Patolemy's view of geography but also fixed it included in drawing the world map.

Furthermore, he also developed in detail the trigonometric fields of mathematical knowledge from angles of triangles and boundaries containing sine functions. He also perfected the geometric theory that represented the face of a cone and developed calculus that helped him master the concept of differentiation.

At that time the West was still living in dark stone age, ignorant and illiterate.

Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with thee unless thou follow their form of religion.Say: "The Guidance of Allah,-that is the (only) Guidance."(2:120)

He explicitly explains the use of zero, a numerical system developed by the Arabs. At the same time, he developed a decimal system and thus, the whole number system, algorithm or algorizm acquired the name after being developed by the Arabs. In his quest to introduce Indian numerical system (now known as Arabic numerals), he has developed a number of procedural calculations including operations and fractions. The numerical system was first introduced by the Arabs to the West whose work has been translated into European.

This is almost ALL incorrect.

1) The use of a zero and place value was first documented in ancient Babylon, long before his his time. Independently, it always was used in India, and all the Arabs did is copy their number system which is much better than the Roman one one which relied on an abacus to do calculations.

What he did do is to introduce a number of rules to solve problems (our word "algorithm" comes from his name), mostly to do with algebra, in his book about "balancing" as he called it.

Well, I guess it was a bit over the top. But indeed, he was annoyed and missed the point as even al-Tabari considered Al-Khwarizmi to be an infidel. I bet that SAM would do great in any Pavlov-experiment on classical conditioning.

The use of a zero and place value was first documented in ancient Babylon, long before his his time. Independently, it always was used in India, and all the Arabs did is copy their number system which is much better than the Roman one one which relied on an abacus to do calculations.

I thought that the Greeks or Romans used some type of void. Very unpractical but they may have been familiar with the concept of nothing.

Propaganda is to some scholars as a carrot on a stick to donkeys. Karen Armstrong being the prime example on how it can induce a desired behavior.